The Winter Witch
by whiterosedying0
Summary: She wanted love, attention, adoration from all of those around her. What she got was infamy. No longer welcome in her village and barely welcome as a part of the resistance, Evie is plagued with madness as she tries to garner the attention she craves as the elementals powers slowly drives her mad.


Evie just wanted love. She wanted to prove that she was special. She needed the attention, she needed the approval, she needed strength. And that's what she got when she trapped the ice elemental in her staff. At first her village praised her, they adored her. She loved every moment. She proved to her master that she was learning, that she was worthy. At least she thought that she had earned his praise.

He loathed her, hated her, scorned her for having to scope so low as to forcing an elemental to boost her own power because she was to inadequate on her own. When her master outright disowned her as his pupil, she broke. Her control on magic was still weak as it was but she didn't care as she unleashed her rage towards her master, her mentor, the person whom she fell in love with at such a young age. She was forced from the village when the people found out what had happened. She did not leave without a fight. Even till today nobody except for Evie knows the fate of her village.

Years pass as she learns to control her magic, to control and contain the elemental inside. She knows that she cannot hope to contain the elemental forever, but she is crafty enough to keep it under her control while it is still trapped. Over the course of the next few years she has made a name for herself as the Winter Witch. Outright freezing entire cities; defeating a basilisk after being swallowed; slaying several ancient dragons with just a cold, frozen touch. She had found her happiness through the suffering of her enemies. Her happiness came at a price, every time she called on the elemental to boost her own abilities, she lost more and more of her own sanity.

By the time the resistance had found her and let her join them, she was a dangerous girl with a fractured mind. The resistance had tried to help her, but most feared that she would freeze their blood like the stories that they had heard. Although, there was, and still is, one person who is not afraid of her and willing to fix her mind and convince her to release the elemental.

This was a simple job, rendezvous at the fish market, deliver the shipment of supplies to the other outpost in the surrounding area, and return home. Nothing can ever go easily when the magistrate catch wind of what's going on. Cassie was trying her best to get in some damage where she could as Talus made his way behind the Magistrate's footsoldiers. Barik had his own fair share of problems to deal with trying his best to keep Ying safe. Projectiles flew threw the air on both sides as both the footsoldiers and the resistance fought for dominance over the other.

Cassie rolled behind a stack of crates and barrels as she scouted the area. Talus had made his way behind finally and the footsoldiers started to drop. Barik now had ample time to deploy his turrets to prepare for more trouble. Speaking of trouble, "Where's Evie? She was supposed to be here by now!" Cassie shouted to no one in particular as she narrowly dodged a flaming arrow.

Almost as if she had been waiting for her cue, Ying spotted Evie soaring towards them from the direction of the outpost. When she caught up with her allies she shouted for all of the to hear that there were more soldiers on the way. "Well ain't that a load of shite if i had to say so myself! Go and help the boy and Ying and I will see if we can't get this wagon out of here." She didn't hesitate to go and put some of those assholes out of commission.

The fight was swiftly turning in their favor as they had defeated the soldiers. They were getting rid of the last of them when Ying was suddenly thrust through the air several feet away from the wagon. Everyone had stopped what they had been doing to witness the war machine Ash arrive along with Vivian. Not far behind them were Lian and her hulking monstrosity of a personal guard, Khan. Nobody had even noticed that Skye was in their back line until they heard Cassie yelp in both pain and surprise.

"Aw shit, everyone find cover," Evie declared as she shot a quick shot at Lian and blinked away to find so cover. Khan immediately and without hesitation, threw himself in front of Lian and kept her safe from the cheap shot directed at the scion. Ying had already recovered and found some protection behind a tree within sight of Barik. Cassie had already started her game of cat and mouse with Skye as she and Ziggs started their search for the invisible woman.

Lian and Khan moved as one as they forced their way onto Barik. Barik was busy keeping Khan off of him but kept getting distracted by the gun fodder from Lian. Ying and her illusions had started to make their way to help Barik. Her illusions swarmed Lian and danced around her as Ying done minimal to no damage to the scion as Khan had always been close enough to keep her safe.

Talus and Evie took turns at distracting either Ash or Vivian. Talus had punched Vivian towards Evie as Evie took a quick shot the blinked over towards the war machine to keep the heat off from Talus. The two kept at it, each getting launched backwards by Ash and bombarded by bullets from Vivian. They were tiring by the minute as they struggled to keep the heat off from their allies.

Cassie made a blind shot towards the cloud of smoke in the distance. It was worth it as she had managed to knock Skye out of her makeshift cover and quickly closed the distance between them. Skye just laughed as she easily dodged every bolt that flew her way. She had to get cheeky if she wanted to poison the girl. Back and forth they traded blows until Skye could prepare another smoke bomb. She lobed the bomb one way as she disappeared and ram the other direction. Cassie had no doubt that the woman was planning something as she called out for her trusted friend to keep an eye out for the conniving woman. Before she could had time to head Ziggs's call, Skye had poisoned her from behind.

Ying saw Cassie drop like a fly and shrieked out in horror for her comrade. Evie stopped her attack on Ash as she looked out towards Cassie's lifeless form. She knew that she had promised, she knew that the resistance would punish her, but she had to do something. She called upon the elemental and unleased a storm of ice and snow. Barik was yelling for her to stop and Ying was to far to do anything to end the inevitable damage that she will cause. The magistrate knew that they could not stay here any longer if they wish to not become a statue of ice.

The magistrate retreated as the ground started to frost over. Talus was the only one close enough to interrupt Evie. With all the strength of the Ska'drin he launched himself at the witch and knocked her unconscious. It took them a more than an hour for the storm that Evie had created to calm down enough for them to travel to the outpost, and another two weeks to get back to their own base of operations. By the time Evie had woken up, they had once again locked her up in the small dungeon like jail.

She had used too much of her energy, and ever more of the elementals power. Her head felt as if a blacksmith was beating away at whatever project they had going inside her head. With each pounding beat she could hear the voices grow. "They never loved you; You useless child; You'll never amount to anything," claimed the louder voices as the softer ones whispered, "You need to use more power; How will you become great if you don't go all out; Show everyone your power, your might; They will never love you until you show them your full potential."

She curled up against the back wall, finding the corner easily, and began to cry. She could feel her sanity slipping away with each tear that slid down her face. She wept for God's know how long, just losing herself in her own memories. Her mind had let her start with her happier memories but, they were twisted. She fought to recall how they really happened. The more she fought, the more deprived and deranged they became. She was currently reliving the memory of when she was taught to fly.

[She was standing at the edge of the mountain again. For two months her master had been teaching her how to fly and defend herself. She picked up the defense magic well enough but flight was still eluding her. Her master had told her that her was going to try and teach her by taking her somewhere that she could watch the birds and find inspiration from them. What he didn't tell her was that he was going to throw her off the mountain.

She was only a child. She could barely conjure a basic offense spell let alone fly! 'Fuck, fuck, fuck! What the fuck is happening," Evie screamed internally as she fell closer to the ground below. She twisted her body to search for her master only to find that he was smiling wickedly as she fell to her doom.

She knew that this wasn't how it happened the first time. The first time her master had flew along side her on top of the mountain. This time he had flung her to her death. This was still her mind, her memories, she was still on control... hopefully. Try as she might, she was still a child in this memory and her magical potential wasn't quite as strong. She threw her arms out to try and break her fall as the ground grew closer.]

"Evie,"

["Evie," her name echoed out to her in a hushed whisper.]

"Evie, stop screaming,"

["Evie, stop screaming," came the voice again more forceful. Still Evie kept panicking.]

Someone wrapped themselves her and stroked Evie's back as they tried to break through to the screaming, crying girl. With more passion and a little more emphasis they called out to her again:

["It's okay. I'm here. Don't cry, I'm right next to you." Evie chanced a glance to her side and saw her master smiling. It wasn't the wicked smile that he had before, it was warm and caring. She reached out for him and he took her into his arms.]

When Evie finally opened her eyes again she found herself in the arms of Ying. She wasted no time throwing her arms around her. She continued to cry; all of her frustration from not being able to control her impulses; the fact that she was failing at trying to regain her sanity after abusing the elementals power; she cried because she couldn't help Cassie in time. Ying let her cry. They stayed embraced for a long time before Evie broke away. She wiped away the tears that weren't frozen to her as she tried to regain her composure just a bit.

Her head hung low as she quietly mumbled out, "How much damage did I cause?"

"You're wanting to know about Cassie right," Ying stated as fact before she continued, "She's good. Skye had only grazed her enough to paralyze, not enough to kill her outright at least."

Evie seemed to calm down at that. The two talked a bit, Ying trying to distract Evie from her worries. Eventually Ying had to leave and again Evie found herself alone. She knew that she was in trouble for using the elemental again. She could feel herself slipping back to the crazed girl that the resistance had found so long ago. Evie brought her knees to her chest as she laughed hysterically to herself in her cell. She was losing her mind, and it was always going to be her fault.


End file.
